The White House Couldn’t Spell ‘New Bedford’ Correctly

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The White House apparently had some trouble with Spell Check on Wednesday.

In an email to reporters, the White House Press Office provided a list of mayors that would join in a working meeting at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday with President Donald Trump in the East Wing of the White House as part of the U.S. Conference of Mayors 86th Winter Meeting. Over 100 mayors were to take part in the meeting. Mayor Jon Mitchell from "New Bedfrod" was also expected to attend.

White House Press Office

There's no reason to believe the misspelling was anything more than a minor typo.

However, "New Bedfrod's" mayor was unable to attend the working meeting, as he was moderating a separate meeting entitled "Energy: Powering Smart Cities through New Energy Technologies and Partnerships" at 4 p.m.

Mitchell's absence from President Trump's meeting with a number of U.S. mayors was not connected to a boycott of the same meeting by a number of Democratic city leaders. In a statement Wednesday, U.S. Conference of Mayors President Mitch Landrieu decried President Trump's increased efforts to arrest officials who purposely refuse to cooperate with federal agencies in identifying undocumented immigrants that may be living in their communities:

Many mayors of both parties were looking forward to visiting the White House today to speak about infrastructure and other issues of pressing importance to the 82 percent of Americans who call cities home. Unfortunately, the Trump administration’s decision to threaten mayors and demonize immigrants yet again – and use cities as political props in the process – has made this meeting untenable.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors is proud to be a bipartisan organization. But an attack on mayors who lead welcoming cities is an attack on everyone in our conference.

When the President is prepared to engage in an honest conversation about the future of our shared constituencies, we will be honored to join him. Until that time, mayors of both parties will work together to keep our cities safe, hold this administration accountable to its promises, and protect immigrant communities – with or without Washington’s help.

A number of mayors did ultimately attend the working meeting with President Trump.